Ruminations on Edie

It occurred to me last night that Edie looks like me. Someone recently joked that babies have evolved to initially look like their fathers, so they don't toss them out of the cave. I know back in the day people would not get too emotionally attached to their babies because they would often die -- sometimes, babies weren't even named until their 2nd birthday! That sounds like a reasonable allowance for high infant mortality, but judging by how Edie is thriving, we should have named her about 9 months before she was born, he he.

She has my mouth, as B has been pointing out multiple times a day, but I also see my father in her forehead and brow, my mom in the particular oval of her head. Looking back, the first day I was just too stunned to see the resemblance. She was all wrinkly, shaky, pointy headed and a little bit like one of those fake rubber baby models they use in the movies (like in "The Hangover" -- I doubt they had a real stunt baby bonk its head on a car door). But the next day -- once she was all cleaned up, a little bit calmer, and more filled out with B's wonderful breast milk -- I really held her for the first time and got to stare at her sleeping face, and I was reminded of my first date with B and how I just kind of fell for her within 60 seconds. I would have been a horrible old-world father, I'd be quaking in my boots from fear of bebe getting the plague or whatever.

As I already said, Edie didn't need to learn to feed; the moment she was placed on B's belly, she literally made a crawl upward and when her mouth was placed on the nipple, started suckling. I didn't even have any time to worry about it. What a stress it must be when babies are too zonked to know enough to get on the boobie.

We were given a "free" container of formula on our last day in the hospital, as well as a handy Similac tote bag. At the pediatrician's office, a whole mess of different formulas are available for sale. I imagine if B had breast issues or our kid was messed up enough to not breast feed, formula would be a plan B....but shouldn't it strictly be a plan of last resort? To give that crap away, like it was normal and inexpensive....nothing is less expensive AND valuable than real 100% freshly squoze boobiejuice! For all this concern for the mother and child, for all this regulation and pushy laws and intrusive prodding, why in hell is formula not being restricted like cigarettes and booze as something to be disdained and only used in limited appropriate circumstances that circumvent breast feeding? Am I being naive?

That said, I can't wait for Edie to get off the teat so I can participate in feeding her....making her food myself, the best pure mush in the land, then B can go do her thing and I can take Edie out and really see the world. Wooooo!

BREAKFAST: 7am, chocolate tart, .5 bowl, hunger 3/5
Needed to eat something healthier, but also wanted to test the tart I spent the afternoon making yesterday. Based on this recipe, E requested it for her birthday. I went out and bought tart pans. The crust was no biggy, but the timing....make the dough, refrigerate 30 minutes. Make the caramel, chill 5 hours. Make the ganache, chill 5 hours before decorating with grey salt. I doubled the recipe, but got 3 tarts out it, which made me wonder. The crust I under mixed, dry and crumbly, like a good tart crust should be. The caramel, the recipe calls for 340 degrees but by the time I got to 320, it started to smoke and smell burnt, so I pulled it and hit it with cream and butter (and some funky creme fraiche).

Between the burning smell, the pale look of the crust (not enough chocolate? Too much flour) and the curiously liquidy ganache, I thought it would be a disaster. Fortunately, the caramel set up perfectly - thick, gooey, sweet, rich and sticky in the right ways, really decadent. The ganache set well, too. The crust is a bit of a mess, but hidden well beneath the layers.

AM SNACK: 10:15am, munchos, .5 bowl, hunger 4/5
Didn't want anything sweet. Had a craving for Doritos of all things, something I never eat, but when I went to the grocery and looked at the ingredients, my stomach changed its mind. Munchos are an interesting "potato crisp" product, made of dehydrated potatoes, various starches, and the very last ingredient is yeast. Light-ish.

LUNCH: 1pm, samosas in chickpeas, 2 roti, water, 1.75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Picked up some lunch to go at a taxi stand I like, as I was eating realized it was way too much food. I used to eat like that, I gotta avoid this trap. Baby makes me wanna eat!

PM SNACK: 2:45pm, small piece of homemade chocolate caramel tart, .25 bowl, hunger 4/5
The problem with having advanced cooking skills at home is that when you make something like this, it's hard to resist because it's so over the top decadent and delicious, relatively difficult to make, expensive to buy, and I unfortunately appreciate it waaaay too much. Hrumph!

DINNER: 6-10pm, a beer, handful of tortilla chips and a little fresh salsa, a bite of fried chicken, a little mac n' cheese, more chocolate tart, a beer, a glass of champagne, .75 bowl, hunger 4/5
Birthday for E. I fried chicken for her, using a c-school Southern fried chicken recipe, using half veg oil and half Crisco, people liked it though I'm not a fan. Got compliments from both friends and strangers on the fried chicken and the tart, which was nice but weird....I just don't take a compliment well, and when it's a stranger, it's hard to be obnoxious about it without coming off as a dick. With people you know, you can dismiss them and they know that you love them and it's not disrespect, but you can't assume that of strangers.